Do you crave freedom from your 9-5 job? Are you starting to feel like every day is groundhog day and you never get enough time to do what you really want to be doing? Is your computer screensaver image of a beach in Bali but you can't remember the last time you had a holiday or even felt relaxed?

A lot of us are struggling with the pace of modern life and the way it revolves around work and the office. Yeah, of course, there are people who are rockstars in their niches who love spending 10 hours a day doing what they do, but unfortunately, these people are the exception. Most of us have ended up working hard and getting into debt to fund a career that we thought would make us feel successful and abundant, when in reality we've ended up feeling stressed and anxious.... and with no idea how to change it. Most of us don't have a plan B. After all, if you were brought up to work hard, get the degree and 'make something of yourself' you weren't supposed to need one. But as more and more people around us are trying to deal with panic attacks, popping antidepressants, developing irritable bowel disease or just generally losing their zest for life, the question that's coming up for a lot of us is "Is this really worth it?"

If I'm too exhausted from work to socialise with my friends, is this really worth it? If stress is eating away at my gut lining and now I can't eat croissants, is it really worth it? If my sex life is non existent because I can't lie down without falling asleep, is it really worth it? If I'm not the happiest, healthiest and most peaceful, loved-up version of myself, is this really worth it?

I get that if this is where you're at, it's a really scary place to be. While you might have accepted that your current life isn't working for you, you may have no idea what the alternative to that would even look like. But it's important to remember that the idea of a 9-5 job is just a mindset, and like any mindset, you can choose to change it to create your own freedom. The 9-5 job is not just "the way things are". In fact, "the way things are" is constantly changing. "The way things are" once meant that women didn't work."The way things are" once stated that slavery was normal. "The way things are" used to mean that the world was flat.

It's easy to feel hopeless or resigned when we look at our current way of working and think that's just "the way it is"...but it isn't. When the pain point is big enough and enough people desire a change, "the way things are" starts to change. And it's changing at the moment. People want to spend more time with their family and loved ones. People want to start buying more ethically and supporting local farmers and growers. People want to experience travel and cultures and new ways of thinking rather than settling down and paying off a huge mortgage.

It's not necessarily about quitting your job or doing anything radical; it's about designing a balanced life that keeps you happy and healthy.

​You're not broken if you don't want 'the norm' and the daily grind - the tides are turning and all you need to do to is listen to your heart when it tells you that something isn't working.

I know that while you might know that your life isn't working for you, you might not know what to do about it. It can be so frustrating to realise that you don't want what you have but to also have no clarity about how to get to a place of happiness and inner peace. That's why I want to share with you the ​The Ideal Day exercise. This was one of the first exercises I did on my path to easing out of 9-5 work. It is life-changing, game-changing and thought-changing. I seriously can't recommend it enough. Everything that changed in my life stemmed from this exercise. Even if you're someone who normally hates journalling or thinks that these exercises are 'hard work' at best or 'new age fluff' at worst, I really recommend you give it a go. Here's how:

The Ideal Day exercise

Get out a pen and a journal and write down your ideal day. Imagine your day as if anything was possible and write down, in the present tense, what you are doing. What time do you wake up? Who do you wake up next to? What kind of bed do you wake up in? What do you see around you? What does the bedroom look like? Be as detailed as possible about what you want to see and experience. What do you do when you get up? Do you exercise? Do you live near a beach that you go for a walk on? Do you have a dog that you take with you? Maybe you go to a yoga class every morning at the beautiful studio down the street instead of going for a walk. There are no 'shoulds' here, no 'right or wrong', just whatever you want in your ideal day. How does your body feel? Are you healthy, energised, toned, slim? What do you eat for breakfast and who do you share breakfast with? What does your ideal house look like? When you work, what kind of work are you doing? Why are you excited to do it? How does it inspire and challenge you? Who do you get to help through your work? Who do you get the pleasure of networking and creating with by doing your work? What difference are you making in the world? What do you do for fun in your day? What do you do to relax? What travel do you have planned? What events, conferences, music festivals, or trips are you looking forward to in your near future. Write everything in the present tense and don't allow your rational mind to place limits on your ideal day based on time or money. Imagine you have all the resources possible to create whatever you want. Fill out every hour of your day until you go to bed.

Looking over your list, what's ONE action step you could take now to move you closer to your ideal life? For example, if you want to walk on the beach every morning, can you choose to do that now? Even if it's only a couple of days a week? Can you move closer to the beach? Perhaps you can start only make it on the weekends at this stage... but you could put an image of someone walking on the beach on your vision board and some shells on your nightstand. You could download an audio of beach sounds and listen to it as you walk around your block in the morning. Step into the experience of your ideal day and I promise that one day at a time, your reality will shift to match that which is on your page. The more you believe it, the more you feel the emotion of having it, the faster it will come to you.

Be courageous: leave a comment with the one action step you will take to move you from your current reality to your Ideal Day. If you're going to create a big life you need a support team to see your desires and cheer you on.

and of course, if you need any extra support to move in the direction of your dreams then contact me for a chat!